Echoing long standing consumer frustration with the Bermuda Telephone Co. Ltd.

(BTC), Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb earlier this month publicly lashed out against the company for delays in getting connections to homes and businesses.

Note to Ms Webb and the Telecommunications Commission: It's time to use a stick and take your cue from the UK's Office of Telecommunications, a consumer watchdog set up to police the industry in the wake of opening up competition.

OFTEL, as it is called, is going to make public on a regular basis classifications of consumer complaints against telecommunications providers in the UK and the number of complaints against each company.

The aim is to allow UK consumers to make a more informed choice when choosing companies. Unfortunately for the Bermuda consumer, as Minister Webb noted, BTC doesn't have any competition in the provision of fixed line services. With the failure of Quantum Communications this situation remains the same almost five years after the process of deregulating the industry started in Bermuda.

Still, Ms Webb will be striking a blow for consumer advocacy and against a company that has been intransigent in fixing problems. At least then consumers will have some measure by which to judge a company that has been keen to paper over its faults and hasn't been made accountable.

In The Royal Gazette article of October 8 reporting on the Minister's comments, BTC claimed it was getting people connected within four to six weeks. Why then, consumers should ask, are the Press still getting reports of businesses and individuals not getting lines connected for up to two to three months? And, anyway BTC's claim of a time lag of four to six weeks is not something to boast about. It's no use giving out the stale five-year excuse that the company can't cope with the demand because consumers want more than one line. Any company in a competitive situation should be exulting instead of complaining over increased demand. Consumers don't want excuses -- they want and should expect service.

It's interesting then to compare Bermuda's stumble toward an open market with the UK's difficult but ultimately rewarding process. There are huge differences -- but the similarities serve as a guiding light for Bermuda. The UK went from an inefficient government monopoly which was holding back innovation to nearly unregulated competition.

Until 1984 British Telecom (BT) was the only provider of telecommunications services in most of the UK (visit www.oftel.gov.uk/history.htm). BT was privatised through a public share offering and Government's stake was eventually reduced to 25.8 percent.

Competition, and price controls where OFTEL determined competition is still not fully effective, has been driving prices down. Between 1984 and 1997 prices for the main BT services have fallen, in real terms, by 49 percent.

Prices for mobile services have fallen on average, across customer types, by 34 percent in real terms since 1990.

While BT has remained dominant in the market, the company's share of revenues has declined overall to 65 percent in 1997. Its share of individual telecoms markets varies from around 88 percent of residential fixed telephone lines to under 20 percent of mobile telecoms revenues. There are now about 150 licences granted under various terms in the market.

It's not only prices, but also service availability, quality and consumer choice which have been affected. The UK is now looking to encourage consumer access to high-bandwidth services. By 1997 cable companies had laid cable past 10.1 million households offering direct-to-the-home telecoms connections. The take up of cable telephone lines by residential customers was 2.7 million at October 1997, a 50 percent increase over October 1996. Mobile telecoms services are provided by four network players with a total of eight million customers by December 1997, an increase of almost 23 percent over the previous year.

In the service area most companies install services by the date they promise to the customer in over 90 percent of cases, report a low number of customer reported faults, with no individual company rising above eight faults per 100 lines per quarter, repair over 80 percent of faults within the target time stated by the company, resolve over 90 percent of complaints within 20 working days, have few bill accuracy complaints with no individual company having more than five complaints about bill accuracy for every 1000 bills issued, according to OFTEL.

In the international sphere, the UK has so far maintained a duopoly in the international sphere with BT and Mercury licensed to operate their own facilities and a range of resellers operating in the market. Under the regulations BT and Mercury Personal Communications must rent out their facilities to resellers wanting to provide international services. With One.Tel, the service I use, I can call Bermuda for 17 pence (29 cents) and the US for three pence (five cents) a minute at all times.

Now with OFTEL's plan to publish the top 10 complaints and the top 10 companies receiving complaints, consumers will be able to judge the level of service being provided in the market.

"Two benefits are achievable from greater transparency in respect of complaints: providing a greater incentive on telecoms companies to address the cause of complaints, and improved information to consumer representatives and individual consumers which will allow customers to make better informed decisions about their choice of service,'' according to OFTEL, which gets about 50,000 complaints a year.

In a move to encourage better service in Bermuda, the Minister of Telecommunications should gather complaints from consumers for all companies and regularly publish them. She should also impose punitive monetary measures to force better provision. Pushed by OFTEL in 1987, BT introduced a compensation scheme for customers giving them 5 per day after two working days for delayed fault repair or provision of service. Alternatively, for proven loss, business customers could claim up to 5,000 and residential customers up to 1,000 in damages.

Such a system would certainly prod BTC, its chairman, its chief executive and ultimately the company's shareholders into action. What's needed from Government is a firm grip at the helm and an intolerance for self-serving excuses.

Tech Tattle deals with topics relating to technology. Contact Ahmed at ahmedelamin qhotmail.com.